You may be experiencing hearing loss if you find yourself complaining frequently about people mumbling or your find it hard to understand conversations in a group. According to the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, these are common signs of hearing loss. See how many of these situations apply to you.
1. You often complain that people are mumbling.
2. You often as people to repeat what they just said.
3. You watch TV or listen to music louder than most people would. When people enter the room, they remark on how loud it is.
4. You have trouble understanding people in theaters, movies, church or other public gathering places.
5. You become frustrated or impatient because you can’t understand people.
6. You find it hard to hear conversations in other, nearby rooms.
7. You have trouble hearing people speak on the phone.
8. You have trouble hearing people when they speak softly.
9. You have to strain to hear conversations.
10. You have a hard time hearing conversations in a group.
11. You avoid social gatherings and large groups in noisy environments.
Why You Can Hear People But Not Understand Them?
A common type of hearing loss is a diminishment in the mid and higher-pitched sounds in speech. These are consonant blend sounds like “th, f, sh” etc. Lower pitched voice tones carry volume but convey more vowel sounds like, “o, ah, a, e etc. This explains why you may hear someone speaking but miss the meaning of the words. You are basically part of the words and not the entire range out sounds needed to comprehend.
What Hearing Aids Can and Can’t Do
Hearing aids can:
- Make sounds louder–soft sounds can be heard.
- Improve the understanding of speech.
- Some hearing aids can dynamically make high pitched sounds louder to better help you hear in noisy settings.
Hearing aids cannot:
- Stop the progression of hearing loss.
- Separate sounds your want to hear vs those you don’t.
- Hearing aids won’t restore your hearing the way it was.
- Hearing aids can’t eliminate background noise.